Why pay for an expensive SEO suite when you barely use it?
Full marketing and SEO platforms charge a high monthly subscription even when tasks like audits or keyword checks only happen a few times a quarter. Paying continuous top-tier pricing for infrequent use makes the software a massive waste of money that is hard to justify.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Running prompts manually by hand to check monitoring needs
- 2Testing trials heavily before committing
- 3Evaluating how often a task is actually performed before purchasing an app
- 4Experimenting with AI models like Claude to replace existing paid apps
- 5building custom internal tools using AI code generation
- 6using open source solutions instead of paid software
- 7Using alternative seating chart tools or free spreadsheets
- 8manually tracking usage counts
- 9coordinating with account reps to adjust billing quantities
- 10renegotiating contracts
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“That being said, I just learned that ninja billing isn't automated. After learning this I checked my invoice and I'm being billed for about 50 more devices than I have.”source ↗
“Why is it $20 to use something that sucks so hard and is in beta testing?”source ↗
“Shame on Joy for using stressed couples as guinea pigs.”source ↗
“if seo work is only happening a couple times a quarter the full suite would be a massive waste”source ↗
“If I’m only doing SEO work a few times a quarter, paying for the full platform feels hard to justify.”source ↗
“It bills accurately and automatically if you ADD agents/seats/whatever, just not if you start using less.”source ↗
“We pay for 5000 endpoints. We've gone as high as 5200, as low as 4700. Bill did not change, evens out.”source ↗
“I was paying like $4 a month for a scarcity counter on the product pages, but my assistant was changing up the colors on the site and the scarcity counter was the same color as the background so you couldn’t even see it. I didn’t realize for like 6 months.”source ↗
“We dumped paying for an LCM tool and built our own to save hundreds of thousands on software, and we can modify it to our will at the ever changing needs of the business. We may replace our PAM as well with a custom built solution as frankly, we're paying hundreds of thousands for the current one.”source ↗
“So instead of saving me meaningful time, I basically added another subscription to the store.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5Why does running an online store require paying for so many apps?
- 2Why can't I talk to a real person on enterprise software support?
- 3Why do we keep accidentally paying for software twice?
- 3How to market paid software without a free version
- 3How to audit unused CRM customizations when the original builder leaves
- 4Why am I paying a monthly fee to sell software for commission?